when and why did you start loading

[Lloyd Smale]

I was 15 and grandpa who retired as a higher up in the michigan state police gave me his detective special he carried for the last 9 years of his career. He also gave me a box of cast wad cutters that a buddy gave him that he said he had no use for. Well like most of us we could go to the hardware store at that age and buy 22 shells for under 50 cents a box and the first lesson was that 38s were MUCH more expensive. I had to do something. So that year for Christmas ma and dad put a lee loader a can of bullseye and a pack of primers in my sock.  I loaded up my empty box of brass and shot them and reloaded them that day. Then i had to buy primers!! but they were about the price of a box of 22s and i had the box of 500 bullets grandpa gave me. Grandpa saw how excited I was and a couple weeks later dropped off a brick of primers and another box of bullets. I was in heaven. couldnt hit crap past about 10 yards unless is was as big as a watermelon but i was having a ball. At 16 for my birthday i got a mec 600. At 17 for my birthday i got my first rcbs  press and still have it and the mec today and my oldest nephew has the colt although it took a trip back to colt to be rebuilt .  Funny thing is my main hobbys today are cars trucks and guns. My ma about 10 years ago gave me my baby book and i started reading it and she had wrote in it that even at age 3 all i wanted to play with were cars trucks and toy guns and would ignore about any other toy.

[sbilson]

Started reloading 16 ga. shotshells over 40 years ago. Later moved up to .357, .44, .308, 30-06, etc.. The reason was I was such a bad wing shooter and I couldn't afford to buy that many shells off the shelf. Later on I couldn't afford them off the shelf because I shot too many different calibers.

[Casull]

I was in school with a new S&W 29.  A buddy and I decided to take up metallic silhouette shooting.  Couldn't afford two boxes of factory .44 mag every week, so I bought a Lee single stage press and related items and began reloading.  I currently have dies for eight different calibers, but have only reloaded a few boxes of .44 the last couple of years.  Just haven't been shooting much at all.  I keep planning on getting back into it.  Always something else to do though.

[mcbammer]

     Skeet  shooting got me  starting  shotshell reloading  around 1978 when the rumors that the Gov. was going to ban lead shot. Still have 500 lbs. of bag hard lead  likely I will never use . I got into  cartridge reloading a little later .

[ironglow]

  I started back in the 1970s, when I was doing a great deal more shooting,  A couple years ago I handed my reloading stuff over to a couple grandsons.  They will do any reloading I need, but I shoot mostly  rimfire now days.

[wtxbadger]

Start shooting in skeet tournaments back in the early eighties, didn't take long to figure out reloading 12's and 20's was the way to go cost wise. That was of course BK(before kids), as soon as our oldest was born I quit competitive skeet and the reloading funds were going into diapers, baby clothes and paying the Doc and hospital monthly installments.

[Graybeard]

Can't rightly say what year or just how old I was when I started but it was after I got married so I was over 20 at the time. I'd guess it was late '60s, perhaps '68 or so. I began loading handgun ammo, mostly .38s and .357s. I picked up an RCBS Junior press to do the loading.

Later I got a MEC 600 JR and began loading shotgun shells to feed my skeet shooting habit. I think it was early to mid '70s when I began loading shotshells.

I got rid of all of my MEC 600s and replaced them with Size Master 77s. I still have four of those I think, to load 12, 20 and 28 gauge shells. I doubt tho I'll ever load another shotshell as I no longer shoot skeet and most years don't even fire a single shotshell. I figure I have more than a life time supply on hand.

[Dee]

I started loading 38, 357, and 3030 in 1970-71, and about everything else since. I now load nuthin but 223/5.56 when I can find the primers.

[Steve E]

I started back in the mid to late 70's because I couldn't find 45 Colt ammo locally at the time and then I realized that it was quite a bit cheaper to reload my own. I still have that old
45 Colt Lee Hand Loader.

Steve.............

[Drilling Man]

  I started in the 60's, helping my dad, he was a big fan of the 30-06 and we loaded lots of them, also I started casting bullets then.

  By 70 I was loading 12ga. on my Mec 600 jr. and selling them, and before 80 I had started a gun shop, had both an FFL and ammo mfg. license and I was loading for a police dept..  I also was "swaging" bullets, designed a bonded core bullet and was making them for sale too.  At that time, Bill Steiger and myself were the only two selling bonded core bullets, Bill was first.

  Along that same time, I designed a few cartridges, and started putting them in combo and DR's plus forming the cases, loading them with my bonded core bullets, and selling them as factory loads, locally and through Shot Gun News.  AND it went on from there...

  LONG ago I put all of that behind me and I've pretty much left it there, in fact this is the first time I've ever wrote it down, and I have NO desire to go back to those times.

  DM

[billy_56081]

Dad bought us a MEC reloader for shotgun shells when I was a kid.

[gypsyman]

 1974 or '75, started reloading. In the fall of 1972, senior year of high school, working at my parents carryout in East Toledo, guy came in, pulled a gun, I gave him the money from the register, and he shot at me, with the words, I ain't F-N around. Couple days later, my dad took me to the local gun store, and bought me a Model 27 S&W with a 3.5 inch barrel to carry at work. Liked practicing with it so much, figured out I might as well reload and save money. Either at 19 or 20, bought a RCBS Rock Chucker, set of 38/357 dies, couple hundred primers, pound of Unique and some 158gr HP. Been at it ever since.

[Ranger99]

Somewhere in the early 80's
A former coworker mentored me in
the alchemy of loading ammunition.
Also introduced me to handgun silhouette
and handgun hunting.
About the same time I was introduced
to BP muzzleloading and hunting

Years before, you could go to Gibson's
department store and pick up a box
of 30/30 ammo for right at $6.00
out the door. Somewhere in the mix
you started having to be 21 to buy
any ammo capable of being fired through
a handgun, and since the Contender
used so many different chamberings,
well, things were a mess for a while.
Back then, nobody had told us that
30/30's and 303's and 30/40's and
such were inadequate for whitetail
deer, and had also neglected to inform
the deer that they weren't supposed
to die unless shot with a weatherby
magnum or similar

Been happily loading centerfire ammo
for all my needs for years and years now

Had to wade through a bunch of bs
at first though. Sad to see beginners
having to sort through all the bs on
yoofloob because there is an abundance
of it

[scattershot]

I started in the early 70s, with a Lee whack-a-mole loader. I started with .38 Special, brcause that was the only centerfire handgun I had at the time. I Couldn’t afford those pricy factory shells, at $6.00 or so a box!

[gene_225]

Started sometime in late '60s after I traded a car that needed engine work for a '98 Krag 30-40. When I visited my folks in Olathe Ks. I found that Hodgden had their store not very far away. They had primers for a penny each and recycled GI powder for $3 per pound and surplus AP .30 cal bullets at $3/100. Then I could afford to shoot it using a $10 Lee Loader from Gander Mountain. Been at it ever since to one extent or another.

[Land_Owner]

Bought 20 rural acres in '89. At Christmas got an open sighted 30-30 Win. 94 top eject. Shot "enough" to assure 50-yard accuracy.  Went to hunt deer. Rifle against tree, binoculars in hand, legal buck walked away into heavy fog at 22-yards.

Went the same day to bow hunter's consignment shop.  Bought a used 270 Win. Classic Featherweight with 3x9 Bausch & Lomb scope.

Co-worker reloaded, made recommendations, helped "accurize" new to me scope, "best" group with 270 factory ammo was minute of pie plate. Gathered spent cases, bought 150 gr. Speer Spitzers, consumables, and a LEE LOADER. Made 0.85" groups. Never looked back.

[neckisred]

Started depriming shotgun shells for Dad when I was strong enough to pull the handle on a Mec 600 JR. ( mid 70's ?). Loaded shotgun shells weekly till 2005 when Dad had a stroke. Put my trap guns and reloading stuff away soon after that and haven't shot a target since.

Sometime around 2017 I picked up an H&R 357 Maximum on the old GBO. I had never loaded rifle ammo till then. Couple hundred bucks later I was loading ammo that shot tiny little groups. This got me back into shooting and reloading multiple calibers and I haven't bought any factory ammo since.